17/01/2007
NEWS STORY
Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella was the pace setter at Jerez today, completing 115 laps in the R27, Renault's 2007 contender.
The Italian was joined by teammate Heikki Kovalainen who also ran an R27, as the French team became the first this year to run two of its new cars.
The team was greatly encouraged by the fact that Fisichella was able to complete a full race distance on the first full day of testing, which indicates a promising initial level of reliability.
Kovalainen's first day at the wheel saw him complete fewer laps as he got a feel for the car's handling and performance, but his positive first impressions echoed those of his team-mate yesterday.
With just four cars running, the circuit remained in a poor, dusty condition. Grip levels therefore remained low, a problem compounded by the cool morning and late afternoon temperatures, which made it complicated for the drivers to properly evaluate the car.
The objectives for the day, though, were focused on accumulating mileage rather than assessing pure performance, and the team successfully passed the important milestone of the first race distance while completing consistent long distance running. Furthermore, overnight analysis of yesterday's engine problem identified the failure of an accessory component as the cause, and remedial work this morning ensured both cars ran without difficulty throughout the day.
"This is a brand new car," said Fisichella, "so to complete a full race distance on the first proper day of running, without any problems, is a very good achievement. It means that we are already in a strong position with reliability, although there is still a lot of work to do ahead of the first race.
"The track conditions were still not good today, but the situation is improving a little," he added. "It didn't matter so much today because we were focusing on reliability work, but tomorrow we will start to make some set-up changes. Overall, I still have a nice feeling with the car, and I can feel it has good potential that."
"This was my first day in the car," added Kovalainen, "so we didn't complete many laps today as we checked everything over and got comfortable. The first feeling this morning was very good, and also during the longer runs this afternoon. The characteristics are similar to the R26, but I can feel that we have improved in the areas we had targeted during the winter.
"Giancarlo has already shown that the reliability levels are good, so hopefully we can do more laps tomorrow and make good progress with the programme."
Second quickest was Anthony Davidson on the Super Aguri, the Englishman finishing just 0.065s down on pace-setter Fisichella.
Davidson's programme comprised continued analysis of the Bridgestone Potenza tyres and control systems development with the team pick up from where it left off in the pre-Christmas test.
Also on duty, and finishing third quickest, was Kazuki Nakajima, at the wheel of the interim Williams FW28. The Japanese youngster completed an astonishing 139 laps, finishing just 0.192s off the pace.
"We had a very varied programme today commencing with analysis of cooling options and electronic systems checks to start with," said Mike Condliffe. "For the remainder of the morning, Kazuki completed his first full race simulation without incident. In the afternoon session, we undertook some additional traction control work followed by a safety car simulation."
All three teams continue here tomorrow.